'Just a matter of time' for new gun laws, Biden says

A Q&A with vice president.

By David McCumber, Washington Bureau

Updated 9:36 pm, Saturday, April 13, 2013

Photo: Richard Drew / Associated Press

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Vice President Joe Biden (center), who has met with many of the Newtown victims' families and has experienced sudden family tragedy himself, visits with Teresa Rousseau and Bill Leukhardt, mother and stepfather of slain Sandy Hook Elementary School teacher Lauren Rousseau.

Vice President Joe Biden (center), who has met with many of the Newtown victims' families and has experienced sudden family tragedy himself, visits with Teresa Rousseau and Bill Leukhardt, mother and stepfather

In a wide-ranging, emotional one-on-one interview, the vice president lauded the bipartisan Manchin-Toomey compromise on background checks, talked about how the Newtown, Conn., school shootings have dramatically changed the public perception of gun violence, and discussed his admiration for the victims' families who have lobbied for new gun laws.

He spoke unabashedly Friday about the connection he feels to the families because of the tragedy he suffered four decades ago, when his wife and daughter were killed and two sons critically injured in a traffic accident.

Here are interview excerpts:

Question:﻿ I heard you say recently that the American people are so far ahead of the elected officials on guns. How do you change that? How do you get the elected officials to catch up?

Answer:﻿ It's just a matter of time. ... It's inevitable.

Here's how I look at it. Most people ... spend all their time just putting food on the table, making sure they've got a job, making sure kids have clothing, making sure they're going to get to school.

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They don't have time to focus on what's happening in other parts of the country. ... But once they become aware of the reality of something that's happening ... it's like, boom! ...

Because now what happened is, it hit that school in a suburban upscale white neighborhood, and these little babies, I mean these babies, were riddled.

What happened is every parent went up and hugged their daughter, their son a little tighter, or their grandkid.

I found myself walking up to my granddaughter who was staying overnight at my house. It was about a week later. They were visiting for Christmas. I was walking upstairs to the third-floor bedrooms, and leaning down, just listening to her breathe.

I know it sounds strange, but you just ... listen to them breathe. You knew everything was all right, but you just wanted to make sure.

It brought it home so vividly.

Q: Tell me about getting to know the Newtown families and the impact it's had on you, the relationships you've made.

A: I've gotten to know them well.

The families the president brought down — I had them for breakfast for two hours. One of them looked at me — a beautiful young mother who actually has a background in psychology. She's, I think, a psychiatric nurse. That's her background.

It happened just two days ago, but I'll never forget this — she said, “When I go up there (to Capitol Hill), how do they say they'll do nothing? When my little girl was hiding in the bathroom and he shot her through the heart?”

It's presumptuous of me to say, but I think I've established a bond.

I've met with almost all the families. There may be a couple I haven't met with. But there's a core of probably 16 of them that I've met, including those who lost a wife and a mom, and a daughter who was a teacher, etc., so it's not just the 20 kids.

The bad news is they know I understand because I lost a daughter and a wife in a different circumstance. But the thing we got to quickly is “that phone call.”

I got one of those phone calls. I was down here on the top of the world. I'd just been elected to the Senate. I was 29 years old — actually I just turned 30. I was interviewing my staff. It was Dec. 18, the week before Christmas. My wife and three kids were Christmas shopping and they were broadsided by a tractor-trailer, and I get a phone call.

The reason I have so much respect for these people: They are out there trying to change things. And you know why that's hard? Every goddamn time they stand up to talk about this it brings the moment back like BANG.

I mean it's not like it's ever distant.

One of the women at the house, she said, “I want to thank you for the advice you gave me.” ... I had told them in Connecticut, every night when you go to bed you've got to mark on the calendar what kind of day you had, zero to 10. Ten meaning the best day of your life, zero meaning the day you heard the news. I said it will be a long time before you get anywhere near 10. But what will make you realize you can make it is the zeroes get further and further apart. ... And that's when you know you're going to make it.

She came up to me and said, “You're right, I'm nowhere near a 10, but the terrible, terrible times get further and further apart.”

Q: I want to ask about the background-check compromise. Your task force obviously recommended a background check for every gun sale. Do you think there's a chance that we're going to be back with another session of Congress talking about how we're going to close the private-sale loophole?

A: I do. I do. But I have to admit that what (Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Patrick Toomey, R-Pa.) came up with covers a big chunk.

Q: It looks like background checks, money for mental health, money for school security and an anti-trafficking law are in play. If you could choose one more of your task force recommendations to get through Congress, what would it be?

A: If I could snap my fingers? Magazines. Boom. Magazines.

Because look, the truth is, look at those kids who escaped — 13, 14 of them — while he was reloading. How about if he had to reload three more times? Gabby Giffords, look at that case. ...

The most chilling thing ... was being with the state troopers ... who went into the school. Oh, man, what pain. The stuff that's going to start coming out, the graphic detail of how this guy piled kids up ...

My mother's comment to me when I had to identify ... my daughter and my wife was “Joey, out of everything horrible, something good will come if you look for it, honey. You have to look for it.”